Some philosophers, such as Jeremy Bentham, Baruch Spinoza, and Descartes, have hypothesized that the sensations of pain and pleasure are part of a continuum.
There is strong evidence of biological connections between the neurochemical pathways used for the perception of both pain and pleasure, as well as other psychological rewards.
Read more about Pain And Pleasure: Perception of Pleasure, Psychology of Pain and Pleasure (Reward-punishment System), Opioid and Dopamine Systems in Pain and Pleasure, Evolutionary Hypotheses For The Relationship Between Pain and Pleasure
Famous quotes containing the words pain and, pain and/or pleasure:
“When we say that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the pleasure of the profligate or that which depends on physical enjoyment—as some think who do not understand our teachings, disagree with them, or give them an evil interpretation—but by pleasure we mean the state wherein the body is free from pain and the mind from anxiety.”
—Epicurus (c. 341–271 B.C.)
“At this very moment,... the most frightful horrors are taking place in every corner of the world. People are being crushed, slashed, disembowelled, mangled; their dead bodies rot and their eyes decay with the rest. Screams of pain and fear go pulsing through the air at the rate of eleven hundred feet per second. After travelling for three seconds they are perfectly inaudible. These are distressing facts; but do we enjoy life any the less because of them? Most certainly we do not.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“But [Jonas] quickly understood that a disciple was not necessarily someone who wishes to learn something. More often, on the contrary, one became a disciple for the unselfish pleasure of teaching one’s master.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)